UMD women to snap non-conference drought in DC tournament

The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) women’s hockey team is taking a Thanksgiving trip out East for the DI in DC tournament.

Slated to face Penn State University on Friday and St. Lawrence University on Saturday the weekend will mark the Bulldogs 2021-22 non-conference season openers. It’s also UMD’s first regular season matches outside of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) since 2019, with their latest non-conference game coming in against Northeastern University in March during the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals.

"In terms of playing Penn State, this will be my first time playing an out of conference team," sophomore forward Clara Van Wieren said. "I’m super excited to see how it compares WCHA to the out East teams"

Senior forward Naomi Rogge added, "when we played Northeastern, like Clara said she hadn’t played a non-conference team and a lot of us hadn’t played on in a while, so it’s super important to get this early experience in the season so that when it comes later on it’s not a shock to us."

The Bulldogs departed for the tournament on Wednesday. Puck drop Friday is set for 3pm CT and Saturday at 1:30pm CT.